2015.02.28 - Moon Knight: Fist of Loki
It's been a hectic couple of weeks in the Magic and Mysticism department. Dragons, new gods, teen gods, undead, a mask that makes people go crazy.. who knows what else. Time to take a little break. John sighs as he draws out a cigarette from the pack half-hidden by his coat and sets it between his lips. He takes out his favorite lighter, metallic and very nice, flicking it to draw a flame and drawing, then, a breath in to ignite the end. Stowing all this, he puffs out plumes of smoke. And curses to himself. If he asked around, he'd have heard there was one witness to Loki disappearing, the girl the godling hangs out with a lot, saying something about a green smoke tentacle thing swallowing him up. Lovely. It might have something to do with occasional reports of people seeing and doing incredibly insane things with only vague memories, but the cause always seems to be gone by the time one can catch up to ask about it. This evening however while John's taking a break for a smoke and looking up at the boring clouds he just happens to be facing just the right way to see a bright green beam of energy bursts right up into the sky for a second, perhaps twelve blocks away. John purses his lips. Of *course* it would be that far away. More cursing follows, as he shakes his head and starts to amble along. Oh sure, there are ways for him to get there sooner and easier, but he's trying not to overuse these things. In time, he'll arrive. Eventually, he'll get there. Dammit. It's not fast, but it gets him there. In time for there to be nothing left but a suspiciously Loki-shaped crater in the ground. Probably not the most reassuring sight, though a half minute or so later he may very well notice the glaringly conspicuous white costume of Moon Knight poking around on a nearby roof, looking in an alley across the way. John notices pretty quickly. This doesn't set well with him, not any of it. The whole affair has left a particularly bitter taste in his mouth; he knows how these things tend to go, and they almost never go his way. When he does notice the familiar figure, he raises his voice and waves. "OOOOOIIIII!!! GET YER ARSE DOWN'ERE!" Moon Knight pauses at the shout, standing straight and turning to catch sight of John. On the plus side he actually listens, making use of that grapple hook do-hickey he's apparently pretty handy with to get down to street level and jog over. One arm of his costume looks a bit singed and he has a gash on his shoulder, but he doesn't seem terribly worried about either. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised to find you here." he comments. "Course you shouldn't." John takes out another cigarette and lights it, looking Moon Knight over from stem to stern and back again. "So what the hell's happened to you?" Moon Knight sighs. "Loki." he says, though he glances to his hand when he notices John's gaze sweeping there. "..And a zombie. But mostly Loki." he tchs.. "As far as I'm concerned, mostly Loki." John rolls his eyes rather theatrically, flicking some ash haphazardly away. "Right. Loki. Just so happens I'm searching for him and at the moment I'd caution you to be careful what you're willing to swallow when you think you've seen our Loki." Moon Knight shakes his head, though his expression is unreadable beneath the mask he's wearing at the moment. "..It was Loki. I can tell that kind of thing. But..something else, too." he sighs. "You don't need to look for Loki anymore, he's free now, the Citywalker just brought him home. I just hope he doesn't relapse." "This wasn't Loki's fault," John rumbles in reply. He's looking a bit worn by the cold, and obviously he doesn't take very good precautions as his lips are slightly chapped and knuckles a bit cracked. "And that's what we need to be worried about. Whatever did this, and however they did it, 's got a bearing on all of us." Moon Knight hesitates, but his posture shifts, even as he looks slightly away from John. "..It was this." he says, and pulls a cracked grey-green mask out of, presumably, a pocket in his cape. He has precious few other options for storage in what he's wearing. "I can still feel the power from it..whatever happened, I don't think it's over, even though Loki was freed." Constantine's brow lifts, his eyes widen just slightly. It's rare to see such an overt expression of surprise on his features, but then there it is. "And you're just carrying it around with you? This has got to be put somewhere it's not going to pull this business again, mate! But yeah...you're probably right." He takes another drag. "Definitely not over." Marc still isn't quite facing him, seeming disgruntled. "Yeah, exactly. We were going to take it somewhere safe as soon as we finished scouting the area." Moon Knight may not be entirely on board with sharing all this information, or maybe just with the delay because the shared voice abruptly becomes clipped again. "Not out here!" he says disapprovingly. "We need to secure this first." he tucks the mask back away. Now one eyebrow settles back and the other lifts again for a moment. He should be used to the full house in Marc's head by now, but it always throws him just a little bit. Especially since he's not been very in-touch lately. Out-of-pocket Constantine. "So what's the story with the zombie?" Moon Knight does a strange thing where he almost seems stuck oscillating in near equilibrium for a moment, almost jittery, but then relaxes, shaking his head. "Not here, it's not safe for you to talk here." he proclaims matter-of-factly. Then adds, as if as an afterthought, "I suppose if you want to follow." Moon Knight admittedly has been generally more respectful of Constantine since the Museum incident, though he still seems vaguely uncertain about the magician's motives. That's another surprise. "*Me*?!" John nearly chokes, though he manages to recover. One doesn't smoke as long as he has and not be able to swallow a bit of a cough. "Right. Lead the way." And so, the man prepares to follow Moon Knight's lead. This'll be interesting, he muses. Got to be. Moon Knight gestures impatiently between them. "You. Marc." he says dryly. "Come on." and with that he turns on his heel and heads back towards the street, cape and all. "Has anyone ever suggested a course on how to keep an internal dialogue...internal?" John grins just a bit, puffing out another cloud, even whiter and thicker because of the cold, as he keeps up with Moon Knight. Moon Knight notes flatly, "There didn't used to be any at all.. I'm not always sure weather this is an improvement." he eventually makes his way to a gaudily silver motorcycle parked in another out of the way alley. Well, beats walking across the city, even if it looks ridiculous. It probably works better when you're dressed the same way admittedly; go big or go home and all that. John's grin spreads a bit more, and his eyes settle onto the motorbike. Well. It's not the first time he's had to hug onto someone piloting one of those. So he waits until the costumed hero gets on, and then he follows suit himself, readying himself mentally for this. It's been a long while. Moon Knight gets on, though he pauses a moment to scoff at nothing whatsoever. He does turn though when he realizes John seems edgy, and wonders in that to-the-point tone, "What? Don't know how to ride?" "Going through some things in my head," Constantine answers, almost uncharacteristically quiet and introspective. A moment later he adds, a bit snappily, "course I know how to goddamn ride, just don't steer us into a wall in this white frozen hell!" Moon Knight actually chuckles at that, nodding. "Don't fall off." he offers, his version of kindness. He takes off on the bike, and at least if it's flashy, it's also practical; probably Frenchie's involvement. At the least it means they don't skid often-- and when they do one could almost suppose Moon Knight was just being a twerp and doing it on purpose to make better time. In retrospect having the personality who seems to have a total lack of a healthy fear for death and maiming drive may not have been the top call of the day. John is careful to lock his arms around the white-clad hero, but impressively he manages to keep his cigarette between his tightly-pulled lips. He's ready for this. It's been a long while, but he remembers! And he'll be damned if he does anything to embarrass himself. Moon Knight might not be impressed per se, but when they get to the back entrance to Grant's building, he does stare a bit at John arriving with a cigarette still in his mouth after the bike ride. "You can't even smoke like that." he says, as if pointing out a clear flaw in whatever outlandish scheme John has prescribed to. John gets off the bike once they're parked. He taps off what little ash is even left. It's practically a butt now anyway, but he's certainly not going to let at least a few breaths go to waste on the way. "Shows what you know," he answers. But he at least does defer enough to let Moon Knight continue to lead the way. Moon Knight just shakes his head, as if finding John perpetually baffling. "I'll be right back." he says, heading to a room where he can assumedly change so people don't see Moon Knight going in and out of the building all the time. John gives a single nod and patiently smokes the last of his cigarette, flicking it carelessly away. Not like it's going to do anything though. Then, once enough time has passed, he walks to the doorway of the room and starts to sing 'The Stripper'. Just to fuck with him. From the blankly baffled but direct look he gets when the door opens... probably still Moon Knight. Oh well; he can hope the others are laughing on the inside. "You don't take boredom well, do you?" he gets instead. Really, he probably hasn't dealt with Moon Knight for such a long stretch before, he usually seems content to let the others deal with Constantine. "Why be bored when I can be amused?" John asks, gesturing casually. He has a point, at least. Even if it is more one in his own terms, in his own way, he certainly does maintain that operating philosophy. "Do you not have any kind of hobbies or anything?" Moon Knight heads to a doorway that leads to the main building, glancing at Constantine as if he asked him why on earth he doesn't try eating rocks sometime to shake things up. Moon Knight says, “That's not really the point. Why would I?” John just strolls along, sliding his hands into his coat pockets. "Course it's the point. Why wouldn't you?" One could simply write it off as John staving off boredom, but for now the focus of his conversation seems to be figuring out exactly what Moon Knight's deal is, especially with regards to having no real life. Moon Knight frowns in confusion. "Like what then?" he asks. "You tell me!" Without much opportunity thus far to interact meaningfully with Moon Knight himself, John's still in the dark about him. He doesn't know the other personalities super-well, but Moon Knight is an inscrutable mystery. "What interests d'ye have?" Moon Knight crosses his arms as the elevator opens, looking John over as if trying in turn to get a measure of him. "..You've heard by now. My purpose is to enact Khonshu's will in this world. I like doing that." he almost seems curious if he's missing something in the conversation. Was that all not clear? John waves a hand, stepping into the lift car. "Yeah, but that can't be the sum of what you are as a *person*, otherwise you're just a cardboard cut-out. A placeholder of a person. You've got to have *some* interests." Moon Knight raises an eyebrow. "Why can't it? I don't see why a person -needs- those things. They're what people fill their lives with trying to find purpose or satisfaction.. I already have mine, I don't need to fumble around in the dark looking for it." he gets a flat expression as that dialogue may be, in fact, keeping more internal this time. The elevator conveys them upwards, oblivious to the existential philosophy. "Is that the company line or what you really think? Cos I don't personally imagine you've ever given it any thought." John leans on the back wall of the car, patiently enough. At least he doesn't have to wait in silence. The furrow to Moon Knight's brow kind of sides with John, though he says, "Of course I do. Do you think I'm secretly..pining away, or something? I believe in what I do." "No." John's hands slowly warm in his pockets. "Can't pine away for something ye don't know. That just sort of proves my point. 's never really occurred to you, has it? Having a life of your own, interests of your own. Anyone else, for that matter, I'd imagine." Moon Knight frowns, though about then the door opens again. "I need to put these away." he mutters, unlocking the front door which thankfully doesn't explode this time. "These? What else've you got there besides the mask, then?" John keeps close, not so easily shaken off of course. He's come this far. It's his way, which Marc would probably understand more than perhaps the other personalities. Moon Knight makes an irritated noise.. he hadn't meant to make that slip. "Something from that zombie." he says shortly. "Just--" he pauses in the hall, and interrupts himself insistently curious, "Why not let him look? He knows about those kinds of things, right? And you should ask him about Marc--" this in turn cut off with an irritated sigh. "We don't even know what they do." he points out, as if this is clear enough reason not to just hand them all over to the unpredictable opinionated Constantine. John listens in on the broadcast. Poor Moon Knight and his inability to keep the internal monologues on the inside! Fortunately Constantine isn't all that unscrupulous, especially when it comes to people he likes. Well. Some people he likes, and a few people he doesn't know very well, all shut inside the same body. "Why not let me look?" He half-echoes. Moon Knight seems guarded, but says, "These are Khonshu's. You're just consulting." as if that will actually change John's likely behavior one whit. One might presume Moon Knight is not actually the investigator of the group.. He none the less seems to be waiting for agreement. "Whatever," John answers, not really committing to this whole 'these are Khonshu's' premise or what the hell he's asked to. He gestures to the door. "Did you want to know what these things are, or anything about them, or just hoard them all until one trips off another and makes it Hell on Earth?" Moon Knight frowns, though he apparently accepts the reply as close enough. "I know some." he says, and walks over to the coffee table with the comfortable sofa in favor of the room that, if John looked in before, has a very large and weathered Egyptian statue as the central feature. Moon Knight sits smoothly, and takes the cracked green mask out of his jacket.. and also a small figurine that looks like a carved dog. Both are certainly magical. John takes up the figurine first -- presumably he knows at least something of what the mask is, especially given his reaction to it earlier. He's careful enough with the item, but he also clearly doesn't have quite the 'made of cracked glass' attitude most would when presented with such a thing. There's a sort of grunt from him, like 'don't that beat all'. Moon Knight blinks. "What?" he asks, apparently hoping Constantine knows something. "Nasty little blighter, 's what this is." John pulls a sour sort of face. There's just so much awful about it. He sets it down, but none too gently. Not as if it could probably even be destroyed. But then he picks up the mask, delicately, tilting his head back and then from one side to the other. "This isn't right." Moon Knight frowns, "..It's not over." he agrees. "Whatever connection there is between this and Loki. He was insane when he first was freed from it; the Hulk had to take him down." "Anyone would be when they're basically pulled apart and can't get back together. And you're soddin' asses for not realizing it!" John looks genuinely incensed, which is saying something since he typically just plays it off or barely shows annoyance. Not this time. "Are ye fuckin' blind too?!" Moon Knight is taken by surprise when Constantine starts raging, though at that last comment he blinks in surprise. "Woah, you figured that out?" John opens his mouth to say something else, probably something harsh, but then he closes his mouth again, takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out. "...what? Just what?" Moon Knight says matter of factly, "Marc's blind." "What? When the fuck did that happen?!" John's genuinely surprised here, and it's not so often that things take him so absolutely by surprise. "What've you been playing at?" He sets the mask down, a bit more gently than the figure, but then he's not too concerned about it breaking either. Probably more firepower than he or Moon Knight could ever come to bear would be needed to get rid of either. The Hulk was the one who cracked it, after all.. Moon Knight seems to be tracking John just fine, and drove here with casual recklessness after all. But he says, "Marc got blinded in the fight with the zombie priest. We don't know how, he shouted something, and it isn't affecting the rest of us." "You're about as useful as a third nipple." John bristles a bit. "Still, good to know our Khonshu's holding out on you. Really makes it clear how much you rate in his esteem if he can't fix something like that. Bring back people from the dead -- sure, no problem! -- a little blindness? Too much for a small-time god." Moon Knight bristles visibly. "Khonshu kept the priest from ripping us apart." he snaps. "We can't expect him to do everything." "Whatever you say to make yourself feel better." There's a certain almost evil edge to John's grin now. He's certainly not grinning because he's *happy*. Maybe amused? But he must have a very black sense of humor. He'd probably say it matches his heart. "I call it 'can't be arsed', meself. But then I've dealt with plenty of small potatoes on the cosmic scale." Moon Knight stands up stiffly. "If you won't help, you can just say so." he snaps. His fists are clenched though, it's clear he's not nearly as calm as he's trying to seem.. it's probably only the dissonance from the others that is keeping Moon Knight from being directly hostile for now. "Oh, I'll help. See? Unlike Khonshu, I'll say it right up front. What's the matter?" John glances at the fists and then slowly, catlike, back up to the man's face. "That's good. Punch the problem. That'll solve it. Bet Marc told you I like it rough." He tilts his chin up a bit, still meeting the other man's eyes. Moon Knight 's jaw twitches. "We're not in the Oblivion." he notes, possibly his idea of a threat. "Are you here to insult my god, or work on the problem??" "Not like they're mutually exclusive pursuits, mate." John's grin spreads, showing a bit of teeth. "Are you here to pay lip service, or d'you have any real investment in making the world a better place? Just wondering, cos I'm pretty sure you don't have a fucking clue about huge great expanses of things that might actually make that possible. And your goddamn precious god Khonshu's just cost you your most useful ally. Good way to treat his champion." He takes a step closer. "Not that I'm scared, mind you. Cos clearly, Khonshu ain't the type who can do anything himself. Doesn't play nice with his toys, though, 's what I'm saying." Moon Knight grabs Constantine's shirt front and yanks him forward to snarl, "Khonshu didn't blind Marc!" he shakes him a bit and demands, "What do you want from me?! Do you -want- to fight??" His face twitches a bit as his hand spasms, a small echo of the dissent he saw in the alley. "You clearly do. Can't face the truth, so you want an easy target. If it'll make you feel better, beat the shit out of old Johnny!" Constantine's tone is particularly heated now, and for the first time in a long time, he's actually raising his voice as Moon Knight. "Saves you from having to actually deal with the real fuckin' problem dunnit! That way you don't have to think about the agreement -- how many times Khonshu's failed you, but like a goddamn idiot mutt, ye keep runnin' back so he don't have to fight his own fights. Because he can't!" Moon Knight shoves Constantine away violently, right over the coffee table. "Khonshu saved us! He's given us life and powers and purpose and certainty, even brought us back from the dead and you're trying to turn me against him because he doesn't do more??" he shouts. Marc somewhere is deeply embarrassed by this whole thing. "Listen to yourself, you damn fool! He can *raise people from the dead*!" John stumbles back over the coffee table, groaning as he's sure something was hit that really isn't going to be pleasant in the coming days. "You're making excuses because you don't want to face the fact that if he can resurrect the dead, fixing his champion's eyes isn't much of a challenge. The only reason he doesn't do it is because he can't be bothered. Because -- guess what -- he doesn't give a toss about you!" Moon Knight is completely beyond any remnant of sensibility as he jumps over the table towards where Constantine lies next to the dangerous magical artifacts he probably shouldn't be throwing around the room and shouts, "Then that's how it is!!" Fortunately for John, he's an old hand in bar brawls and street fights, though he's nowhere near the level of trained that Moon Knight is. Then again, he's goaded him to the point where he's hardly his restrained, controlled self, either. The first impulse John gets is to reach for something and use it as some kind of barrier between them, and for better or worse it's the mask, and for better or worse, he pushes it at Moon Knight's head. Uh oh. Moon Knight grabs for John's shirtfront again, and this time his free hand jerks back in a balled fist. He's skilled alright, but if there's one thing that tends to strike people about how he fights, it's how he tends to just plow right through blows instead of dodging them, so he doesn't flinch in the slightest from his intent as the mask comes at his face--not until the last moment when some part of his piece of his mind manages to form some connections through the red haze of rage and jerk back-- way too late. There's a flash of light and streams of green smoke as Moon Knight stumbles backwards, hands to his face. And so, then, John's derailed and surprised, for the second time in just under an hour, and he notices what he's done. Pushing himself up on his arm, he winces a bit and then unfolds up to his full height. "Well shit." That's about all he can say. Moon Knight sits up, and his costume's back again, shining and cowled and... tinted a very toothpaste-y green. It also has a lot more physics-defying flares to it, his cape is actually floating. "What did you.." he sounds disoriented, almost drunk. John pushes his hand through his hair, taking in a deep breath again and sighing it out. He digs in his coat and produces a cigarette, and it's lit before it reaches his lips. He needed that. "I fucked up," he answers, simply and plainly. "Old Johnny's fucked up." Moon Knight scrabbles back, bumping into the table. Something is wrong, and not in the same way it was when he wore the mask before, when Loki was still trapped inside it. There's something he direly has to do, though he's still working out what. "I've, I'm.." he's actually shaking, "You..you need to go. No, it's.. I'm.. I've got to go." he gets up unsteadily, though he does lunge in John's direction once more.. he doesn't attack him this time though, just grabs up the dog statuette next to him, and then heads for the window. "No!! Not with that!" John grapples for the dog figure. Definitely not a good thing for someone mentally imbalanced to have, especially someone -- in his mind -- with the influences of Khonshu and Loki fighting. Or, more accurately, probably Loki steamrolling Khonshu. Moon Knight growls, still fairly angry with John even if he's currently fuzzy as to why. He backhands him, or tries to, meaning to knock him away from himself and the figurine. John takes the hit like a champ, although he'll probably have a bruise or two in the morning. He's not letting go, though. "Listen -- I know we've had our disagreements, but please -- *please* -- leave that here. It'll just make things far worse if you take it with you. You'll be putting yourself in danger and everyone around you too. You'll be compromising your values." Moon Knight snorts. "And leave it with -you?!-" though at least he answers.. Moon Knight probably wouldn't be talking any longer if Constantine wasn't abusing buzzwords. "Listen. Are you listening? I don't want *anything* in this fucking room. I am not taking anything *with* me. But you've got to promise you won't either, least not until you're in your right mind." John knows his words. He knows buttons to press. Later, someone will ask him what he did tonight, and he'll say 'I visited an old friend' and if the other person knows John, they won't think anything of the bruises. Moon Knight hesitates...he knows, in the back of his minds, something is off, something isn't right. But he's also -incredibly- angry, so.. "I'm taking -one- thing." he states with finality-- and throws the dog statuette across the room. In the same motion he grabs John around the waist and jumps right out the window, John in tow if nothing stops him. Now neither of them will have it. "Fair enoWAIT WHAFUCK YOU! FUCKYOUFUCKYOUIFUCKINHATEYOUYOUSODDINGFUCKER!!" John...*hates* this sort of acrobatic adventuring. He hates being on sheer platforms, he hates falling, and above all he hates taking chances with his life thanks to some bastard in tights. It's kind of a trifecta of loathed things for John. But it's probably fair enough, Moon Knight's getting his wicked little revenge, probably. Moon Knight does find this moment one of the more satisfying ones of the day, if he were being honest. ..And if he were not loopy to the point of being right off his already compromised rocker. Though the even stranger thing is that he doesn't even go for that grapple truncheon. They just fall. They drop a dozen stories or so and then his cloak spreads as if on it's own volition, and...they're flying? That doesn't even make sense, at least not normally. The cloak doesn't have any way to provide lift.. But with whatever weird twisted stolen magic is going on, who knows? Moon Knight keeps firm hold, repeating, "Don't fall." If Moon Knight weren't the sole reason they're still alive -- though John probably could've wangled something there in the last minute, since several metaphysical celebrities don't exactly want him dead yet -- he'd currently be experiencing a good whack in the jimmies. It's a miracle, and nothing short of it, that the man hasn't just vomited all over Khonshu's champion, but it's already a green enough costume. It probably wouldn't benefit from the added organic touch. "You're goddamn lucky Marc's in there." Moon Knight snorts. "I'd let you talk to him, but it might be a bad idea right now. I bet even you'll have to agree in this case." he retorts, still clipped, but now the satisfaction is leaking through more, perhaps thanks to the disruptive influence of Loki's stolen magic. "Mate, there's gonna be a reckoning and it's gonna be fuckin' ugly." John flattens his brow. He's been outraged already tonight, he's tired from the outpouring of emotion, the derailing of what he'd tried to set up, and the stress of JUMPING OUT A GODDAMN WINDOW. When they reach solid ground...yeah. They're flying right along the streets, some hundred feet above the traffic. At least it seems controlled, more or less. Moon Knight is intent on whatever destination he has in mind, once he stops talking to John, looking around as if searching for something. They zip impossibly along through the city, before John is finally deposited in a park nearby a street of residential apartments. "There." he says. John gets his feet on the ground. "Get the fuck out of my sight," he snaps, going for another cigarette. At this rate, the pack's going to be empty before he even gets back to his room. "Talk to yourself. Better yet, talk to Khonshu." He takes a long, deep drag and starts to walk away. Anything's better than this. Moon Knight is already walking towards the apartment, seeming just as pleased to be getting away from John as well..though if Constantine ever went there, he might recognize the apartments as the ones where Lois Lane lives.. and currently, also Loki. But he hesitates at the mention of Khonshu..he stops a moment, wavering and confused. "Khonshu's...missing." John's too far away to hear that, or he might click his heels for joy. He doesn't seem to have much love lost between him and Khonshu. In fact, at the moment he's too rattled to be aware he's so near where Loki lives...oh well. Maybe he'll pop around later. Category:Log